What's ahead for the US economy and job growth? A peek at inflation, interest rates, more

The post-COVID-19 economy was finally supposed to stop defying gravity and topple into a recession this year.

Instead, the stock market is roaring on the growing belief that the Federal Reserve is on track to wrestle down inflation without causing a downturn, a rare feat known as a “soft landing.”  

To be sure, growth is expected to slow amid the delayed effects of the Fed’s aggressive interest rate hikes, the depletion of households’ excess pandemic savings and a pullback in federal government spending.

But other factors are likely to keep the economy afloat, forecasters say, including near-record home and stock prices, a further easing of inflation to or near the Fed’s 2% goal and the central bank’s tentative plans to cut interest rates more sharply than previously anticipated.